I am sorry if this has been asked thousands of times before, but I just want some straight answers. Please don't flame.

I am thinking about installing the homebrew channel (yeah, I'm slow I know), but how safe is it really? I understand that neither the TwilightHack nor the channel itself has caused any Bricks, however, could they do that in the future? And if a new update arrives and it bricks the wii because of the HBC, could I then remove the channel without traces? (prior to the update, of course)

I guess it boils down to this: 1. How safe is the HBC? 2. If removed, is it traceble?

Btw: I understand that pirated VC and WiiWare downloads are traceable, and therefore not wise.

Yeah, since you are installing a channel onto a Wii, there could be a chance of something going wrong during the installation, and causing a brick. However, no such issues have been reported with the installation of the Homebrew Channel.

Also, regardless of what you have installed, Nintendo won't intentionally brick any Wii, so in that regard, it doesn't matter whether or not there are traces of it when removed. That's not to say that a brick couldn't happen with a future firmware, but if any conflicts rise with the Homebrew Channel, Team Twiizers will more than likely release a fix for it.